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codex alimentarius commission FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ...

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nutrition and health. This prohibition does not apply to "Medical Foods"<br />

represented for use solely under medical supervision in the dietary management<br />

of specific diseases or disorders."<br />

23. The delegation of the United States supported the proposed exemption from the<br />

general prohibition of certain claims, as indicated in the first sentence of the text 3.4, by<br />

giving details about the specific characteristics of "medical foods" such as:<br />

(a) indiscriminate use of these products might be a hazard to health;<br />

(b) they should be administered therefore under strict medical supervision;<br />

advertisement and information about these foods should be permitted only to<br />

the medical profession.<br />

Detailed additional labelling provisions would be required to ensure proper use of<br />

these foods.<br />

24. Several other delegations agreed that such foods existed, for example specific<br />

foods for renal insufficiency, for phenylketonuria and other abnormal metabolic<br />

conditions. It was also noted that these specially prepared "medical foods" could either<br />

provide the whole or a part of a complete diet.<br />

25. The Committee agreed with the view expressed by several delegations that it<br />

would be more appropriate to elaborate an entirely new standard or preferably<br />

guidelines to cover these products in more detail. If desired, the guidelines could be<br />

annexed to this standard in due course.<br />

26. The delegation of the United States was asked to prepare a first draft of suitable<br />

guidelines, which would be limited to aspects of labelling and claims for "medical foods"<br />

for consideration by the Committee at its next session.<br />

27. In view of the foregoing the Committee decided not to include the proposed<br />

section 3.4 (see para. 22) into the standard.<br />

Section 4 - Mandatory Labelling of Prepackaged Foods for Special Dietary Uses<br />

28. The Committee agreed to amend editorially the preamble to this section, to make<br />

it clear that the reference to specific Codex Standards for Foods for Special Dietary<br />

Uses applied to those standards which had already been elaborated by this Committee.<br />

The list of Codex Standards for Foods for Special Dietary Uses will be included in the<br />

final version of this Report. The list would be up-dated periodically as new standards<br />

were formulated.<br />

29. The Committee did not change any of the provisions contained in section 4.1<br />

"The Name of the Food" except that section 4.1.2 was amended to permit the use of an<br />

"appropriate equivalent term", and in section 4.1.3 "may" was altered to "shall" because<br />

it was agreed that the declaration of the essential features which characterize the food<br />

should be mandatory.<br />

30. Several delegations indicated that they had difficulties in understanding exactly<br />

what was meant by the term "component" in section 4.2.2 (List of Ingredients). The<br />

secretariat pointed out that similar difficulties had arisen in Codex Commodity<br />

Committees when they had considered the labelling requirements for many foods under<br />

their jurisdiction. It had therefore been proposed in the working paper on the "Revision of<br />

the General Standard for the Labelling of Prepackaged Foods (CAC/RS 1-1969)"<br />

submitted for consideration to the forthcoming session of the Codex Committee on<br />

Labelling, to reword this provision. In reality the provision was meant to require<br />

declaration of individual ingredients of a composite food which was used as an

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